A little Halloween

I am not a big Halloween decorator usually. I love fall decorations and tend to rock them from September 30th to December 1st. 

This year I decided to do a few little focus pieces for Halloween along with my Fall decor. 

Hope you are enjoying the Halloween season! 

P.S. Don't buy candy that you actually like WAY before Halloween! It is not "doin' a body good"! Just a tip!

Every Little Bit

This is a common sight at our house.

Do you know what it is?

It is the window ledge above my sink. And those are the foil yogurt lids that my husband so sweetly leaves for me. 

Why? Well, because I asked him too. After his morning Activia he rinses off the lids and sets them on the ledge to dry. After a few of them accumulate I collect them up and take them over to my laptop.

I log onto www.cupsofhope.com and enter in the code on the back of the lid. It is the least I can do. For each lid Dannon donates 10cents to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. 

So from now until 11/30/10 I will be frequenting this site.

Because every little bit helps right? I am not doing the 3day walk or anything nearly as profound but I feel like this is at least one little thing I can do. And I appreciate my husband for helping me by remembering to leave his lids. I also appreciate that my husband wore his pink shirt to work today. He even remembered that it wasn't clean and did a load of laundry at 9pm last night DURING A FOOTBALL GAME! He is trying to get it in the rotation as many times as possible during the month of October which, as you probably know, is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. 

I am very proud that he is so thoughtful. 

So what are you doing to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month?  

Pumpkin Spice latte's make the world go round!

Yum!

I am sipping a Pumpkin Spice Latte (skim milk, no whip) right now and it is delish!!!

Nothing says Fall like a warm pumpkiny coffee drink.

Okay a few things do. That crisp breeze that keeps rushing in whenever someone opens the door. The guy across the street that is blowing leaves off the sidewalk. The pumpkins on the front porches of the houses in the neighborhood.

I love it!

Fall is my favorite season. Everything from buying school supplies (miss it) to the Thanksgiving dinner. Tie it up in a bow and give it to me please. Love it.

For me there is something fresh and new about Fall. Even more so than Spring. It just seems to waken up the senses. It says "get down to business". After all of the hot lazy days of Summer it is a breath of fresh air! Fresh, cool air. I love breaking out the boots and jackets. Pulling out my Indian corn, my glazed ceramic pumpkins, and my acorn adorned hand towels.

Oh and did I mention the Pumpkin Spice Latte? The glorious PSL!*

The days are getting shorter, the air cooler. The sun is a bright glowing ball of the deepest orange as it sets over the lake behind my house, turning the sky pink and the lake the most beautiful coral color. The windows are being opened and the air conditioner switched off. The environment and my energy bill are both better for it.

Even though I am way too old to do so, I start making a Christmas list. Football is a constant on the weekends (and some weekdays too). Halloween costumes are planned, and the list of all of the things needed to construct said costumes is made. It is a time for getting together with friends and family, watching a game and sitting down to a warm meal. Break out grandma's stuffing recipe cause its on!!!


What about you? What season gets you going?


*I do not frequent Starbucks on a daily basis. In fact I hardly ever do. I still love me some Pumpkin latte goodness.

Going Home

Sometimes the simplest questions can be the hardest to answer.

What do you want for dinner?       What's your favorite song?      How are you doing today?

and for me this weekend...  How do you like Florida?

Now for anyone out there that does not know I lived in Las Vegas for 5+ years and moved to Florida last November.

I was a bridesmaid for one of my good friends this weekend in Las Vegas. I became close with this special friend through the design firm that we both worked for. We worked on a job together for over four years, she being my project manager and I being the Interior Designer on the project. We bonded. She is fabulous. You might remember her from this post where we trained and ran a 1/2 marathon together.

So needless to say there were many friends at this wedding that are former co-workers of mine as well as just friends and acquaintances from my time living in Vegas. And of course the question that I was asked over and over again...

How do you like Florida?

So I tried to answer as honestly as possible.

"You know, it is different"     "Its good"    "I really enjoy being close to family"

All of it seemed to fall short of being able to clearly explain how I feel about Florida. I do like living in Florida, but I also miss almost everyone that I was speaking to and I was having an inner battle of emotions.  I started to get kinda bummed when I thought of them all still working together or at least still working in the Las Vegas fun, fast paced design industry.

Plus this was the first time since moving that I felt decidedly on "the outside". These used to be my peeps! The distance was starting to show.

So anyway that brings me back to another hard question for me. Where is Home? For me Home is always Texas. It took me a long time for Vegas to be Home. And now it was strange leaving Vegas and saying I am going Home to Florida.

I feel like that guy on Sister Wives who doesn't have his own bedroom and just rotates between his 4 wives rooms. (Okay I don't really feel exactly like that but I love that show, so interesting!)

So how do I feel about Florida? I think time has still not answered that question. I feel like there are things to be accomplished, opportunities to be taken advantage of, and friends still to be made. I do like being close to family. I still wish that Dallas was only an hour away so that I could be close to my mom and my brother and his family but, yeah that isn't going to happen. I do miss Las Vegas though. I thought I was so ready to leave but now that I am gone I realize all of the things that I miss.

It was a bittersweet trip. The sweet was this...

The bitter was realizing that Home is a hard to define. That it always isn't one place. That with the people that you used to share everyday conversations you are trying to sum up the last year of your life and it is harder than you ever imagined.

So where do you call Home? Is it hard for you to define?

GAP

Is anyone else profoundly relieved that GAP has realized they made a huge mistake and has decided to go back to their classic logo?

I am!

If you don't know what I am talking about, Gap North America, the often spoofed, yet beloved clothing store, tried to "update" their logo last week. It was less of an update and more of a "we just opened up a Word doc and typed in the word Gap and then added a little blue box with gradient shading". Seriously it looked like it was something out of a basic instruction manual for Windows 2000. Well they announced today, after a huge outcry from upset fans, that they are going back to the classic logo (the tall capital G A P in the navy blue box).

I am so relieved.

Why this tiny mishap in Gap's brand image campaign inspired me to plunk out a post? Well maybe it is just my small way of closing this huge GAP in time since I posted here.

It isn't that nothing interesting has happened in my life the last three months or so. On the contrary there has been lots going on in my life. Vacations on the beach, welcoming my adorable twin nephews into the world, trips to Dallas to help with said nephews (and getting a tiny glimpse of motherhood), football season starting!!!, first cruise ever, anniversaries, birthdays etc.

But along with all of that good stuff going on there has been a lot of uncertainty in my life in the last few months. Not knowing where my life is headed. Worrying about the future (sometimes even just the next day). Wondering if certain decisions we made a year ago were the right decisions. You know grown-up stuff.

I don't know why I haven't written about any of this. I guess I just haven't felt the urge to right it all down play by play. No need to worry about that now. A spade is a spade.

But here I am again!

I am back!

Like the Gap!

Green thumb anyone?

I don't think I have a green thumb. Which is unfortunate because I love plants.

The only plant that I have managed to keep alive for any amount of time was a Mother-in-Law's tongue that lived on my desk for the 5+ years in Las Vegas. I think it liked the pretty much constant fluorescent light.

Which is funny because I pretty much hate fluorescent light.

I left it there in the care of a good friend so hopefully it is still soaking up the fluorescent light and getting the remaining contents of some water bottles from time to time.

Anyway I bought this really cool elephant ear plant and I am not doing to well with it.

I read online (so it must be true) that they need alot of water. Well I am giving it plenty of H2O but I keep losing leaves. They just dry up and droop all of a sudden. It is making me really sad. 

Maybe it isn't getting enough light. It is pushed right up to the window sill and all, practically making out with the window, but maybe it isn't enough? I refuse to bust out any fluorescent light bulbs though so I am hoping this is not the problem.

I may resort to singing soon. "May" being the operative word. 

I want you to live plant! You are so perfect for the corner of my breakfast room! 

What are your favorite house plants. Any good ones that are easy to keep alive? What do you say green thumbs out there. Help a sister out!

Summer is slipping away

and that is okay!

I mean it is going good! I am getting used to the downpours in the afternoons. Mostly because I have been cool and dry in my home when they have happened.

That is until today.

That is until I was held hostage in JoAnn's. Usually one of my favorite stores.

But not when I was going on hour 3 of being there!

I was with my darling niece at a super cool craft class. And we were all good for the first two hours. The first two hours were occupied with glueing, wrapping fabric around foam core, decorating a super cool "Memo Board" for her room.

Then the girls even painted some birdhouses. Gratis from JoAnn's because the class ended early and I was the only mom/aunt that stayed with her child, so there was an hour to kill before the other kids were picked up.

I could have left right then. I have a car and a license.

Oh how I should have left right then!!! But no, Miss Reilly wanted to go shopping. She had money burning a hole in her Hannah Montana coin purse. And since I was not in a hurry I said OK!

Big mistake.

Not five minutes into the shopping in the toy/craft aisle did I hear it... the thunder.

I should have said "let's go lady"!

But no, I am new to this rain thing, and I try to be the "cool" aunt, so I didn't pay much attention. Then I heard the drumming. The drumming, droning, very loud sound of rain on a tin box roof!!!

So for the next hour we shopped slowly. Went back to the craft room. Played hang man with the other two girls and the teacher. Watched the dynamic of three 7-8 year old girls, who otherwise did not know each other, play a game. Interaction at this age is interesting. A preclude to teenage years. But less straight forward. Realized that the teacher of the class was 19, which made me feel immediately ancient. It was a long hour. Complete with drumming, droning, sound of rain on a tin roof.

With the constant downpour not letting up at ALL, I decided to purchase an umbrella. A common item in all stores in this part of the country I have found. Thank the Lord.

We made a dash for it. With the help of the very helpful "education manager" to carry the memo board, painted birdhouse and various bags that we had with us. We made it! Wet but, in the car, and on the way  HOME!!!

So in conclusion, if you hear the Thunder, and you think you might be able to escape before getting drenched, DO IT. It wasn't horrible, I did not suffer any pain or dismemberment, but it was a lesson to be learned.

Because no matter how much you like a store, being held there against your will for an hour, is still an hour that you keep thinking over and over again...

What else could I be doing right now?